The Switch may be Nintendo's main focus now but that doesn't mean the 3DS is on the way out - in fact, the console is continuing to get software throughout 2018.

Atlus has just confirmed that Etrian Odyssey X will launch on the Nintendo 3DS on August 2nd, with a price of ¥6,998 in Japan. It is being billed as the final outing on 3DS, and is an all-new game (don't let that Capcom-style 'X' at the end of the title fool you).

Etrian Odyssey began life on the Nintendo DS before moving to the 3DS with titles like Etrian Odyssey III and Etrian Odyssey IV, and its gameplay is built around the concept of having two screens. It will be interesting to see how Atlus will evolve the franchise beyond this final game on 3DS - or if it intends to continue the series at all now that Nintendo's dual-screen system is entering its twilight years.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

I'd like to see the franchise make the move to the Switch next, although I'm not sure how well they'll be able to make it work. It's one of those games that makes really good use of the dual screen setup and might not be quite the same without it.

I haven't quite finished the first game to this day (done with the story, but the last dungeon is predictably tough in the already tough adventure), but it was awesome. Future titles on Switch, though? Since you need to be mapping out your surroundings almost constantly (well, until you fill out the floor, at least), a lot would depend on the convenience and precision of a motion pointer like in the upcoming TWEWY port. Apart from that... why not?

I mean, having the map beside you all the time is certainly more convenient in such games, but I don't mind opening a menu as long as it's one menu. Going from Strange Journey to the first Shin Megami Tensei was kinda intimidating in this aspect. XD

For now, though, cheers for the tenth... I mean, fifth flagship game in this challenging yet immersive series!

@Ralizah Not difficult. You could keep the map in the corner while exploring. For drawing you could do a fast screen change button. Basically press a button and the full map comes up for drawing, press again and back to adventuring. Sure it won't be exactly the same but I'd sure hate to see a great series like EO die just because the switch is 100% exactly like the 3ds.

@Yorumi Maybe, although I could see that becoming annoying quickly. It'd be a better solution than just gutting the mapping system altogether, though. And I could see it being particularly hard to pull off in docked mode.

I'll play any of these games that release on Switch (with mapping intact, at least), but, to be honest, I'd prefer if they moved on to other properties for a while. If you include X, the two remakes, and the two Persona crossovers, there will be TEN of these games over the course of two console generations. It has been a great ride, and some of these games count among my favorite video games of all time, but I'd love to see them create experiences for the Switch that are a perfect match for the platform. Like SMT V, which seems like it's going to be the big-screen Nocturne successor people have wanted for years.

@Spectra But... The past many games have been Physical as well. I don't really understand your dissatisfaction. There's no indication that EU won't get a physical edition, and all 3DS games have gotten one (EO4, EOU, EOU2, EOV). Heck, I've got them all on my shelf at home (and I live in Europe)

@Ralizah Not a problem tbh. Even with the worst case scenario being pointing the joycon at the screen to pop the map up and draw by pointing with it, it'll be just fine. I've played quite a few games where I've had to point with the joycon or do motions etc, I think it'd be just fine.

Is it less engaging and accurate than the 3DS way of putting a stylus on a screen and drawing on the grid? Yes. Is it impossible to make it work in an optimal and essentially non-annoying way on the Switch? No

@Blizzia It's not dissatisfaction, but concern. Atlus have prematurely ended their partnership with Deep Silver, and their latest title, The Alliance Alive, didn't get a proper release in EU territories. I worry that EOX would get the same treatment.

I’ve been with this series since 3 and I can say, although it is definitely still awesome, it needs a bit of a refresher. I skipped 5 because I felt like I was having to “do it all over again.”Now if this one comes to the West I’ll be getting it. I’m ready for another now. I know they did the whole mystery dungeon thing too which is awesome but it’s still missing something— not sure what that something is though. It will indeed be interesting to see what comes on Switch!Please come west!

@Spectra Ah alright. That is indeed questionable behavior, hope they'll at least consider releasing EOX physically, as it's a pretty longstanding series and they've released all the previously released games physically in Europe (albeit via their external EU publishers that they've now broken ties with).

@Spectra
While I share the exact same concerns (as I always do on region-locked systems), I should point out that The Alliance Alive is not an Atlus title. Atlus USA took care of distribution in the West, but it was developed by Cattle Call and published by FuRyu originally. EO is property of Sega/Atlus, so we might see different treatment for this series. Fingers crossed.

@brunojenso
True, but you'll mostly be looking at your own party for the majority of the game, and you can pick their appearance yourself.

@TheGameSquid Why would it be bad? The pointer works excellently on every game I've played so far that makes any use of it. Why would EO be any different? Besides, it's pretty easy to just please everyone and add a setting that toggles between button mapping, pointer mapping and simultaneous mapping (both usable).

YES! I was hoping they'd do a version with Legacy classes, instead of just...Untold III, with marginally upgraded systems (because EOIII has aged surprisingly well) and another garbage story mode for me try for 10 minutes before I go back to Classic mode.

I side with those here saying EO wouldn’t work well on Switch, at least in its current formula. Pointer controls sound horrible - I’m not saying they don’t work for anything, they sound horrible for the precision of map drawning. Not everyone is good with precise pointer controls, it would be fatiguing for long play sessions and unless they zoom in the map enough that you must constantly scroll to edit the map, it would be aggravating to fill every square, draw the walls, add the symbols... and having the game automate those features takes away the real character of the game and turns it into a generic dungeon crawler, the huge selling point is map making, which is a chore without a pen/stylus (even handheld mode with be more clunky relying on fingers over stylus). Button controls seem just as cumbersome, EO makes mapmaking fun by making it fluid and easy. I don’t know how they could make the game work well without changing it heavily, maybe they’ll have to take a break from it which would be sad because it’s a fun series... but I see why they’re clinging to the 3DS until the very end, this series was made for dual screens without being gimmicky, even Wii U could’ve handled it well but Switch? Yeah, personally unless they found a good way to keep that feel (without pointer controls or plain buttons) I’d sadly have to pass...

@ShadJV one example of a way they could do map making is with hotkeys. So lets say you go into map mode. The 4 face buttons could be used to place a wall on one of those 4 sides of the square. L could paint the floor, holding L would allow you to select color. R could be used to place a symbol, holding allows for symbol selection. ZL and ZR could be used as general purpose hotkeys for storing frequently used symbols or something.

Is it quite as good drawing it? No I suppose not but it's close. Do we really want to see such a wonderful series die just because you can't physically draw in all modes? For that matter if drawing is so important to the series get some graph paper and do it.

@Yorumi um if you want to draw maps on graph paper, there are a lot of dungeon crawlers that expect that, the reason EO was initially innovative is you draw the maps IN the game.

It’s already a niche series, like it or not. Making the map drawing less enjoyable will only shrink the fan base, not grow it - it will still be awhile until the Switch reaches the size of the 3DS install base and given this series consistently distributes quality demos, it likely wouldn’t reach a broader audience on Switch unless it significantly improves the game - and as of right now, I can’t imagine a way to even keep the map drawing at the same level of quality as it was in 3DS, let alone improve it. I am not the only fan that would lose interest if they used buttons for mapping either, any friends I have that enjoy the game have also expressed that sentiment and from the looks of these comments, there are plenty of people who feel the same; there clearly are people who would still play it, I’m not trying to argue that no one would enjoy it anymore, just that sales would likely be lower in any Switch followup unless they think of a good idea to make map drawing just as enjoyable (or find a completely different selling point for the game which takes a lot from the spirit of the game). I’m not saying the series should die, but maybe the Switch isn’t the best hardware to continue this series on. It’s a wonderful series BECAUSE of its map drawing, if you take that out it’s quite generic in terms of dungeon crawlers. And once again, graph paper defeats the purpose because you can do that for any dungeon crawler, that’s a really poor idea to replace the core mechanic of the game.

I mean, it’d be like releasing a Dance Dance Revolution game for the Switch without a dance pad with the reasoning, “well they can do button controls or you could use the joycons to point in the directions shown”. You’re replacing the core mechanic with something inferior to continue an experience with the argument that a good series shouldn’t die out. If you want it to continue because it’s a dungeon crawler with skill trees... there’s other options that don’t have the map drawing feature? I fail to see the point of making games in the series for a platform that doesn’t support its biggest selling point just for the sake of continuing to have a new entry in the series every two years, maybe Nintendo’s next system will fit it better or heck, they could just continue it with PC as at mouse would work better than pointer controls.

@CanisWolfred My Japanese isn't the best but all I heard from the DLC was an "new explorer illustration pack" as in different character portraits for the classes already available. I could be wrong though.

@ShadJV To me the appeal of EO is it's one of the few RPGs where the battle system actually does some interesting things. The classes are quite creative, debuffs actually matter, tanking is legit and useful. Then you have the immersion, and the actual danger of exploring the labyrinth. You have to actually think about what you're doing and prepare in advance.

There's so many different ways to make a team and synergize them that different playthroughs can feel very different. Of all the JRPGs I play EO is among the best really. Few jrpgs can engage me like EO can. To say the only appeal of EO is drawing a map is silly. The series is brilliant. And really you could fully implement map drawing in portable mode, it's just docked that you'd need an alternative. Why is that so bad? You were forced to play EO in portable mode before, do that with a switch version.

@TheGameSquid This is true...but then, what's their excuse for their dire handling of Shin Megami Tensei IV? Going a little farther back than that, we never got Etrian Odyssey II or III on the DS either.

Atlus have proven time and again that they really don't care about EU territories, and they've always relied on other publishers like NISA and Deep Silver to get games to us properly. Now they no longer have any kind of partnership, I hold very little hope honestly. But I suppose we'll see...

@Yorumi I had a more detailed response but my stupid phone browser decided to randomly refresh so I’ll just summarize what I was about to say:

The Switch touch screen being capacitive makes it even worse for map drawing than motion controls, long plays would be hard on the wrists (except maybe for younger players) and drawing would be less precise, especially for those with larger fingers.

I never said map making was the only appeal, it’s what sets it apart. Just because you haven’t played them doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of JRPGs out there with all the traits you mentioned. Try exploring with other niche titles, you’d be surprised. EO isn’t super popular in the West and a decrease in sales would like result in no Western localizations. And many players would definitely lose interest if they cut mapmaking, it is one of the most iconic features of the series and, once again, the one area it’s truly innovated.

@Yorumi personally I’m not a huge fan of the genre as I tend to find them punishing, EO is an exception because I like mapping out the dungeons and often restart once the game starts to require too deep of strategy (EO is a bit of a lite dungeon crawler, it starts out quite easy). So I wouldn’t be the best person to look to for suggestions, the ones I play I rarely bother remember the names. I did enjoy Unchained Blades, it’s on the 3DS eShop, though it’s more story driven than EO tends to be and might not be what you’re looking for. I try to could ask my roommate for suggestions if you really want, he’s more into the genre than I am, and if you do some searches for dungeon crawlers you can find some wonderful suggestions - generally most either automatically draw the map or you’re expected to use graph paper (more do the latter, it’s a fairly old genre and many fans enjoy the process). I tried to figure out which ones I’ve played but as stated, I’m not enough of a fan to have committed them to memory, though I can link you to forum threads I found with people listing other suggestions to EO fans. Most of the games will be on computer though, because the genre isn’t popular enough that it succeeds on consoles and handhelds - if you want 3DS titles, that’s a bit tricky, like I suggested there’s Unchained Blades and I think a couple others but I have no idea if the others are any good so I will give you that, there’s not many options for the 3DS, but Atlas could easily make a whole new dungeon crawler for Switch for that matter, there’s no reason they have to stick with the Etrian brand for it. Atlas recycles ideas between their franchises anyways.

So yeah, I’m not the best person for suggestions but google either “games similar to Etrian Odyssey” or, more broadly, “dungeon crawlers” and you can find quite a few, of course not EVERY one has a party system but many do, just gotta read some reviews. Don’t necessarily include JRPG in the search though, they often aren’t advertised as such, but they all do have RPG mechanics and first person explorations of one or more dungeons, usually divided by floors, some with party systems and some without - the good ones will balance it correctly so that multiple strategies work and most classes can have some sort of use.

Also, I apologize if any of my messages came off wrong, I do enjoy the series too, though mainly because it’s easier than many games in that genre and the mapping is simply fun to do. If Atlas finds a way to keep that feel without a resistive touch screen, I’d be on board, I don’t want the series to completely die out either, I just don’t want them to gut what makes it stand out from other dungeon crawlers either, there’s such a large spectrum of them and a majority of the high quality ones require players to physically draw out maps on paper or take the mapmaking aspect out entirely... which is why I never have the patience to stick with them. I am glad this is one of the last series to stick with the 3DS though, I honestly don’t think any game I played nailed dual screens quite as well as these did!

@ShadJV It's not even specifically dungeon crawlers that I'm looking for. It's more what I described with the combat where you have interesting classes, multiple roles beyond just do damage, debuffs that actually matter, and battles that make you think so. I find most rpg combat comes down to just hit them with your strongest attack and that's boring. It's one of the major things EO does well, the combat is interesting.

@Yorumi once again, much of that is common for dungeon crawlers - if they were about hitting with your strongest attacks, it would take much of the challenge out of them because you could just grind up. But heck, a LOT of RPGs have interesting classes, roles beyond doing damage, debuffs that matter, and battles that make you think. In the past month alone I’ve played two that have those traits, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Final Fantasy VI. XC2 has three base classes (tanks, attackers, and healers) but a number more depending on what combinations of blades you equip. Tanking is fairly important though as healers and attackers aren’t built for taking hits - you can’t just go all out offensively because you’ll die too quick, and debuffs make a huge difference, especially in bosses (some of the debuffs enemies do can destroy you if you don’t apply debuffs to them to negate that first). And FFVI has has like a dozen classes at least, quite a few strategies because of it but once again, you can’t just throw together whatever you want, you gotta balance your team somehow, there’s so many classes I wanna replay it even though I’m not even done yet because I want to see what other strats I can come up with.

I don’t generally like RPGs that you can just bulldoze through with high attack. I like ones that utilize the whole system. And there’s definitely no shortage of those, old and new.

@Deadstanley Then they should've named this one EO VI instead of EO X. I get that they're using the letter "X" rather than the Roman numeral, but that doesn't work and just makes the titles confusing when all the other entries use Roman numerals in their titles. It worked for Mega Man, because the other entires (except the GameBoy enties) used the standard Arabic numerals in their titles (eventually giving us both "Mega Man X" and "Mega Man 10"), but it doesn't work here.

@BulbasaurusRex oh, I see now what you were referring to. My original post was too clarify the mistake in the article that said EO3 and 4 released on 3DS. I would rather see this one named EO6 or VI as you state.